The disgusting reason you should never use a bathroom hand dryer

If there’s one thing we should all be wary of in public toilets, it’s the standard of hygiene being kept.

Even if the entire bathroom has been scrubbed clean, with all of the surfaces absolutely gleaming, there’s one area that will likely still harbour a plethora of germs, and it’s not the toilet…

It turns out, the hand dryer in a bathroom can actually host a variety of nasty germs, which we wouldn’t even notice with a naked eye.

Pic: Shutterstock

A new experiment carried out by a scientist called Nichole Ward has gone viral after what she discovered lurking in the hand dryer of a public bathroom.

She found that in an enclosed hand dryer, several different strains of potentially harmful bacteria were lurking, and what’s worse – they are all being blown out onto people’s hands when they go to dry them.

Taking to Facebook, Nichole posted the shocking results she uncovered after examining the inside of an enclosed hand dryer.

She shared a photo of a petri dish covered in bacteria, which she said grew after just a few days.

She said: ‘I stuck the open plate in an enclosed hand dryer of a public bathroom for a total of 3 minutes. Yes 3 only.’

Warning people to avoid using hand dryers, she said: ‘DO NOT EVER dry your hands in those things again.’

Nichole Ward. Pic: Facebook

‘This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands.’

The scientist also explained that she wanted to share her findings to make people aware of the problem, not to cause fear.

Pic: Shutterstock

Since Nichole’s post was uploaded to Facebook last month, it has been shared over half a million times, with thousands of people also commenting to share their disgust at what she discovered.